On Top of UP Diliman

2008 Philippine Blog Awards

2008-09-18T17:52:00.005+08:00

I vote for bikoy.net, who insists that he's not the type who blogs about blogging. So I'll do him the honour and vote for him. Oh yes, he's also in Diliman, and he was the top of the last University Student Council councillor-ship race. Hope he wins this one too!

The 2008 Philippine Blog Awards is sponsored by:

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Absence of "Self-Help" in the Dewey Decimal System

2008-01-07T19:22:00.000+08:00

News just came in and I can't help revive this blog with such unpleasant update.

A worker by the name of Arnel Zafra attempted to end his life by jumping off the 5th floor of the UP Diliman Main Library. He is now in critical condition.

All I can say is, I'm definitely sure that the top floor isn't the fifth, I've been in it. Actually, you can't really tell if it's the 5th because there are many floors between the third floor and that apex tower, I just remember climbing a lot of stairs. And securing a permit from the ILIS administrators. And obviously, that was two years ago, and I'm pretty much alive.

I'll probably post pictures if they didn't die in my great hard drive crash.

Gonzales Hall (Fake UpperFloor)

2006-03-21T11:25:00.000+08:00

For most of you who are not from UP Diliman, no, teh Topnotcher wasn't strong enough to carry the Oblation indoors. She could, however, ~~photoshop it~~ climb to the "top" floor of the Main Library Building, also known as the Gonzalez Hall. This is the original Oblation made by the first National Artist for Sculpture, Guillermo Tolentino.

The floor where the main staircase ends in the main library lands on the third floor. The University Archives and Records Depository will be the first to greet you. Rm 300 are archives for famous people/alumni and their submitted requirements, most probably their theses and dissertations. Rm 301 (as seen on the image above) is for all of us regular mortals, or maybe you (because I don't think I have anything archived in there). Don't worry people, we will go back to this room later (it's a tad bit controversial).

Also on the floor is the Institute of Library Science. The administration office is one that will greet you on the main floor landing, but you can enter that^ gate entered by the unknown person over there.

I found this exteremely cute: a nested library. A library inside a library. For future librarians.
There are other nifty stuff in the hall, mostly lecture rooms and computer labs (since they offer Management Information Systems). There are also tambayans for the org (one of them is UP FLIPP). Going back out from here, we go back to Rm 301.

When I did the coverage of this building, there were books all over the place. Sort of blacked-down battered types. I thought they were recovered from a secret cellar of a famous person.

After talking to Tita Marlou Rodriguez, she told me that they were actually restoring some pieces of the personal collection of another National Artist this time for Literature, N.V.M. Gonzalez. His house was sacrificed to an electric fire.

In light of the recent events on this blog (which "terminated" me actually), it's important to honour the pseudo top floor of the Main Library building, with its staff who are capable of bringing back National Artists' treasures, even if they were caught in the flames and of course, the fact that it installed a fire exit.

Sana madali siyang babaan.

I am going to violate my own rules, because wuh. Thanks to Jonaks who informed me the mythicality of a library, and that this was a deceiving top floor.

Save Top of Your School!

2006-02-28T20:26:00.000+08:00

Someone is trying to set my school on fire.

School Arsony being costly. In recent years there have been on average three arson attacks on schools every day.

Most of the culprits are teenagers - often high on drink or drugs - from problem families in deprived inner-city areas.

Teenagers eh? Here's the greatest solution to juvenile delinquency. [extra: kawaii! BR]

Even if you already tried to fix the source, it is true what he said: You can't have a top floor if you don't have a building.

We can always take the advice of the Koalas.

Or maybe a renovation of the school building's walls and water fountains. Let's make sure we get our own Mr. Benson: In 1912, Simon Benson, lumberman and civic leader, commissioned 20 drinking fountains with a $10,000 gift

If you can't find Mr. Benson, make sure you'll have a 20 minutes to spare during class and have a film viewing of Grief-o. (If you don't have that, excerpts of Waterworld will do). Also, you might want to take care of your firefighters.

Non-Building Post: Autobiography

2006-02-21T03:14:00.000+08:00

Sorry for the now infrequent feed of your boring buildings around UP Diliman, which I have to disturb with *something* that might turn out to be annoying, but really, it's worth seven buildings with all the manual labour I had to go through to finish it.

Video embeded on this site:

Gomen for the broken link. And for mediocre quality. My film career is at its infancy. This is *also* my pseudo-editing debut.

UP Vanguard

2006-02-19T13:39:00.000+08:00

The third building in the University to start with "V", I once thought that the V-Rooftop on my Form-5 meant Vinzon's Rooftop, resulting to a very embarassing incident that I wish not to recall. The Vanguard Rooftop is on the third level of the building, home to the now optional ROTC programme, the Judo/Martial Arts Sparring Room and the Dance Classes of Professor Mynette Aguilar (coz she finds the dance area in the main gym too noisy).

Church of the Risen Lord

2006-02-15T07:30:00.000+08:00

Oi Peyups People! I'm back. Sort of. Consider it the return of the prodigal son. Only I'm a daughter. But if you really want genuine entertainment from A prodigal son, watch Pinoy Big Brother, Celebrity Edition.

My comeback brings topofyourschool on top of the Church of the Risen Lord, otherwise known as the UP Protestant Church. The structure itself is designed by Cesar Concio, the same guy responsible for Palma Hall and Melchor.

The top floor is the second floor, that opens to a huge landing which serves as a good venue for events. The signboard says "Happy Birthday Jesus."

Obviously, still in a hangover from that old holiday. Which reminds me, Belated Happy Valentine's Day. (Consider this a blasphemous gift, but it might bring you to a different floor)

Aside from the wide, spacey venue for events, there's the Gentlemen's Loo, The Ecumenical Ministry Foundation Incorporation Board Room, Christian Education and University Ministries Offices.

Asian Institute of Tourism

2006-01-29T07:21:00.000+08:00

Also lying on the outskirts of Diliman (can we say a Diliman suburb?) is the Asian Institute of Tourism. A lot of Tourism majors wail because of their isolation, or is their wailing remnant of the charred endings of some parts of their buildings?

I'm obsessed with top floors even if it means going into creepy, cold staircases that lead to the real upperfloors. When I got to the 2nd Floor of the AIT building, I know I wasn't on the top floor because I saw another level (see, that set of windows) above me. Aside from that, the unused elevator clearly indicated that there was a 3rd Floor.

And there it was. A real rooftop. I can't access the floor itself, all entrances were barred, but I could see beds and the curtains were still hanging. Of course, there's the collection of old furniture. And fantastic views. You can see the Iglesia ni Cristo in the most intimate level as compared to the other buildings that spot it in campus. Commonwealth Avenue seems to look different at this height (and also at this height).

The AIT Complex is the first Tourism Institute in all of Asia (inagurated by Tita Meldy in 1978). The floor I've been to was part of the AIT Hotel, leased by Brentwood Corporation back in 1989. According to some helpful student tambays in the Tourism Management Society, it burned down in 1994 (ergo, it's listed in their official timeline as "closing down"). They also asked me if I did see anyone up there.

Non-Building Post: Peyups LJ Community

2006-01-28T19:30:00.000+08:00

I fulfilled quota (tee-hee: 35 posts, 33 of which are valid) but I still have tons of pending buildings to post, and some key buildings to check out. But that's beside the point of this entry. If you're from the UP System or in the entire Filipino university Online following, Peyups.com might be on your bookmark, even if you're not part of the forums (they stopped signing in people for some time). Anyway, an LJ community was patterned after the Peyups phenomena. And if you like this site (or my lightly-edited pictures -- yes, I actually have good composition skills when it comes to my digital ... why-oh-why with manual I can't do it, I don't really know), better check out the new layout of the community created by queen_of_paine
*bow*

Technology Business Incubator

2006-01-27T05:44:00.000+08:00

Most of us undergraduates really have no use whatsoever to the UP Ayala Technopark. They don't hold "regular" classes there for us younger ones. But being Topnotcher, I just had to see the heights of this area for myself.

The Technology Business Incubator (TBI) was the first building opened in the UP Ayala Technopark, an actualization of a vision that started in 1986 to boost the Science and Technology programme of the University. The TBI was established in 1993 and inagurated in 1997, as funded by the DOST.

As I climbed up the beautiful grand-ish staircase that ended on the 2nd floor, a bunch of poinsettias where there. Hanging on to the Christmas season, hm? On this floor is the Conference Training Center and SHARED Asia Pacific (A Project of the Center for Economic Policy Research). Towards the end of the hall was one of those access-points to the "real" upperfloor.

Ta-da! Technology is supposed to procure higher output (to adjust to the diminishing marginal productivity of both capital and labour), and in the long run, alleviate this:

A squatters area in Katipunan and Elizabeth Hall - a Girl's Dormitory in the background.

The other building in the Technopark, the Advanced Science and Technology Institute, was everything I disliked about government units. It's actually a ~~pretty good~~ common trend. They tire you out with bureaucratic measures, and you leave the place not accomplishing anything ... because of what? Undecisive second-in-commands and unimaginative minds. "This isn't a school, this is a research institute" my ass.

Chemical Engineering Laboratory

2006-01-25T21:19:00.000+08:00

I did want to be a scientist once, when I realised that being a doctor was such a generic kid dream. I then realised that I just appreciate scientific concepts, I don't have a knack for researching about them. Plus, the schools I end up in are hubs to the worst-funded labs in the country (yes, even my private Catholic all-girls high school had bad labs). Major turn-off? Luckily, the UP Chemical Engineering Laboratory didn't turn me off. Getting additional funding? Maybe. Or most probably, private corporate sponsors - in this country, they work more efficient than the government anyway.

The site was still under construction but of course, I had to go up. I know the building was labelled as lab, but there's a Computer Room and a Conference Room in it. There are five other labs as well: Process, Thermal Systems, Kinetics, Materials and the Environmental Engineering Laboratory. Don't ask me to differentiate, I just know they're there, paved along those narrow catwalks that have scary railing that "protect" you from those heavy equipment downstairs.

This one is the Distillation Unit. If Chemical X isn't there, you might still want to try to be a Powerpuff Girl.

View of the trees and the dorm across the Lab Building.

National Center for Transportation Studies

2006-01-25T19:45:00.000+08:00

Let me just remind my dear readers that yes, this is still On Top of UP Diliman, and not a cross-post of say, Usapang Kalye. I know what you're thinking... where in Diliman is the National Center for Transportation Studies? Well, it exists, and it's there right behind DILC.

The guard thought I'd be going for class. But she let me up, since the highest was just the second floor. In it were a library (what's new?), Director's Office, a Transportation and Environmental Laboratory, ... and a non-NCTS unit, the Electronic Data Processing branch of the Office of the University Registrar.

Funny you have to manually transport yourself in this building. And here's your very traditional fire escape (I sense that this will be a topfloor favourite soon). But before you leave, check out the smile-your-face effect on the overlooking middle courtyard:

Music Annex (ANX)

2006-01-24T23:26:00.000+08:00

Like its "motherbuilding", you'd really hear a beautiful mesh of music from this building, one of my favooooooourite things.

Don't listen to me, I'm just a topnotcher. And luckily, these music people had *positive* externalities in my "note-taking".

View of the Annex Garden, behind that the main hall.

College of Music: Abelardo Hall

2006-01-24T23:13:00.000+08:00

I'd say there's more where that came from, because I saw the note late. Anyway, you're in the College of Music in the afternoon, everything is better heard than seen. :D

Diliman Interactive Learning Center

2006-01-24T22:34:00.000+08:00

Any first timer in the Diliman Republic would probably be surprised of this slab of Emerald City in the campus. It's not my first time here, because the top floor of this building is the HQs of the school's Computerized Registration System team. Meaning students, lions, t(h)in men and the like, seek their personal wizards in this pseudo-Oz.

Personally, I just wanted to drop the "business" in the major that the database dictated me to have (my major is Economics, but they put me in Business Economics). Nothing happened the first time, so I re-walked the yellow brick road. The gold standard isn't my standard anymore.

I was entertained by two student team members, Jack and Juris. Jack was a girl. Then I saw a spiral staircase and after those two became my personal "Good Witches" ... and they were nice enough to allow me to follow my instinct.

Real upperfloor? Computer stocks. Actually, they're just boxes. Boring. Someone get me back my ruby slippers.

UP Computer Center

2006-01-23T08:40:00.000+08:00

You might be surprised how some topfloors are just the 2nd Floors, but I guess the bigger surprise is how the UP Computer Center is an abberation to all tekkie-ness. Both the façade and the interior is still 70's-ish old, as if it never had a single paint job since it was first built. Not that it's bad, but it seems more like an unmaintained government unit (which technically, it is) than a computer center.

The second floor really is more like a house than anything. There's the main office of the Computer Center which handles the administrative duties, yet it was really relatively empty. During pre-CRS season, this is where individuals scurry to get their UP Webmail Accounts. Of course, since it's midterm, no one worries about the next semester's registration so the floor was empty. The Webmail account should really be renamed because no one uses it for mail anyway, and if they do, they usually have it forwarded to their Gmail or (insert name of their default e-maill servers). The account is handy for two things: CRS and Wireless Internet access.

And with that, Ping-Pong tables joined the ranks of Libraries and School Furniture Tambakan in our Topfloor Favourites.

National Engineering Centre: Juinio Hall

2006-01-23T07:03:00.000+08:00

Hello, building deux on the Eng'g Complex. The National Engineering Centre (a.ka. Juinio Hall) was established in 1978 and is the college extention that carries out transactions that merge the academe to private firms. Ergo, if commercial/government ventures need some structural consultations with the academic pool the institution has to offer, they do project proposals here, and not in the College of Engineering Administration.

The staircases are made out of metal, very engineering-ish and the industrial era-like.

There are three access points to the top floor of the building, which is the 4th Floor. It's one of those buildings that has the typical rectangle shape and a huge rectangular courtyard right smack the center.

Well, way up here, you have several headquarters. There's the UP Miners Club, the Eng'g Web Team Lounge for Student Assitants, the Undergraduate Thesis Laboratory, Japan Official Development Assistance (JICA), and tons of offices for the University of the Philippines System - Controller Budget Office (UPS-CBO).

Well, there's the guard station over there. I decided to look for my not-so-long-lost godfather whom I last bump into in this building back when I was still in high school. He used to run the NEC, which was excellent, and the other excellent part was that he relocated on the topfloor!! He has several offices there, and holds some of his classes and research in that floor (under the Department of Mining, Metallurgical and Materials Engineering).

There were tons of potted plants on this floor. Guess that's postmodern industrialisation for you.

College of Engineering: Melchor Hall

2006-01-23T00:03:00.000+08:00

It's a well-known fact that the Academic Oval should be more-or less symmetrical. Thus, Palma Hall is *almost* the same building as Melchor. So I expected the 5th Floor to be on top of the Engineering/(ex)Architecture building. Classrooms, an AVR with a kitchen, a defunct elevator, paranormal mirrors, a rusty gate that leads to a tambakan, a view towards a "higher" floor, (Eng'g) students who don't know what the Architecture people used it for, and a janitor who has never been there.

What do you know? I took advantage of the Gateway. It wasn't difficult, but it was noisy, which was perfectly covered since the floor was getting crowded for an exam to be facilitated by P&G. My stealth points are increasing again.

I don't do ladders, but I'm surprised I managed the steepest staircase I've seen in my life. It was so scary.

There was a cat sitting on a chair that moved out. The entire floor was creepy even in broad daylight. Even with the cat, I somehow felt it's a mice's kingdom. I think the school's computer servers are here, generators, and some funky dome that contains a spiral staircase that ends on top of the dome.

These models became a total clue that this was an architecture tambakan.

The view from the top of Gonzales Hall (Main Library) was breath-taking (you can also view Iglesia ni Kristo on another side). Almost as breath-taking as the allergens that were present in that room. I can't believe I was THIS HIGH to go THIS HIGH.

Vargas Museum

2006-01-22T22:57:00.000+08:00

Of all buildings in UP Diliman, you'd be surprised that the Vargas Museum would be the only building with *no* pictures in this blog. Why? You'd have to go there and see for yourself.

So if you are, I suggest you go on a Wednesday, where entrance is free. Although even if you do visit on *payable* Museum Hours (Tuesdays to Sundays, 9 AM to 4 PM), prices range from PhP 15 - 20.

The highest floor on this building, the third floor, happens to be the most boring as well. The staff literally had to stop me from going up (being topnotcher, intuition dictates me to climb every staircase). What's there? Library (typical) and Archives. Offices for technical and artistic support. A sitting room.

When I went to the basement (counterintuition of the topnotcher), I chit-chatted with a personnel. She told me sometimes, they hold art exhibits on the third floor, and it was off season. The nice seasonal gallery was on the Edge (first floor), featuring the Art of Nelfa Querubin, a beautiful collection of patterned, inscribed, fired and glazed art that literally rocks. The collection will be here up until the 15th of February, so if you don't have a Valentine, just re-institute your love for art. (charot)

NISMED: Science Teachers Training Center

2006-01-22T22:21:00.000+08:00

NISMED main building was relatively harder to ~~sneak into~~ conquer. It was fun *trying* to gain access to it. Deputy-Director Dr. Marlene was afraid that I'd commit suicide (really?), and even had flattering remarks on how fabulous I looked. *cough -carrot- cough* so she cordially asked Mang BA to escort me.

The staff uses this rooftop for their parties, a likely choice especially if the forecast would present clear night skies. There were nifty objects that stood on the rooftop. It's also the aircondition unit repository.

There are rooms on this floor, as you can see, there's an Observatory Room. It's currently un-used because the ex-manager, Edmund Rosales, moved to work for a TV station. And on the floor, there is also a Studio. They "shoot" stuff there, but is void of equipment.

Well, since we all want to learn scientific and mathematical teaching methods in this building, I proved that there would be no free-falling human-beings to be facilitated while I clicked on my camera an infinite number of times. My blood won't be splattered on these beautiful landings, and guess what Dr. Marlene, maybe you just saved a life.

Vidal Tan Hall

2006-01-22T21:04:00.000+08:00

Vidal Tan Hall. One of those buildings that I absolutely have no clue what its for, although I had fond high school competitions in its Auditorium. Under the National Institute of Science and Mathematics Education Development, The top floor of the hall was the third floor.

I'm getting tired of all the fake topfloors that I have to cover but end up covering because I never think it goes a notch higher. Well, this one, I skipped for obvious reasons. I don't do ladders.

I never knew I had acrophobia until this project started. So forget skinny rusty ladders that lead to actual rooftops. I'll just walk in doors.

How apt. Someone WAS watching. The room I entered used to be leased by the UP Open University.

I guess it was okay that I was cordially escorted by the janitress out after that woman in the Chemistry lab saw me. Most of the rooms in the floor (around 10 of them) are for instructional development (there were rooms like High School Mathematics, Chemistry, Biology, et al.). The janitress personally felt that their building was ugly. I had to disagree with her. Maybe you probably do too.

Mme Ventanilla's effe-ce-mod.

2006-01-21T06:33:00.000+08:00

I was intending to look like an orange, but they insisted I was a carrot.
Carrot you say? I shall bring you to my vegetable patch. But first, I need to print my access letters.

"Oh, you can do it in Pop-I."
"Popeye? Don't they serve chicken there?"
"Not anymore, it's the Population Institute."

And then, there it was. A rooftop. A rooftop I should've been to, but haven't been to. I now knew where my vegetable patch was going to be.

Hmph. Them camwhores. Although they did find my lush, green "home".

Ah... overlooking the lairs of those homework slaves. I wasn't tall enough to capture the courtyard without falling off the ledge. Although I was LITERALLY ON THE ROOF.

Even if I intended to be oh-so-orange, you can't help but feel so blue. I miss Pong. I'm so glad I still have Ping.

College of Arts and Letters: CAL New Building (CNB)

2006-01-20T09:08:00.000+08:00

Well, I'm still trying to figure out who institutionalised abbreviating an unnamed building as the "New Building." I thought it was a thing in my grade school, because most of the buildings aren't named anyway. But hello, the CAL building isn't very NB. It's almost standing there and used for two years, after all. Relatively speaking, maybe it is an NB since the influx of NBs to replace it is slow.

Aesthetically, this building is pretty. Italian tiles, grand staircases, an "overlooking scheme" that's very theatrical in the sense of like watching an opera. The fifth floor is their topfloor, with no means of getting to a rooftop, so I surveyed the halls, windows, views, windows, views, and alternate access points.

I did have a class here last semester in Rm 501. A 4:00-5:30 class on Pop Culture. It would have been a nice class, especially under Professor Nadera. The problem was, I was coming from my PE class, and I usually walk to the class. The height of this building was just good reason to curse about. Until of course I visited it again, with knowledge that this particular exercise routine is out of my system, I feel happier.

For this semester, you can find the following classes in this floor: Comparative Literature, Creative Writing, European Languages, English, French, German, Italian, Latin, Russian, Spanish and Speech Communication. As you can see, dominated by the Department of European Languages.

Well, I'm taking two of the classes in the roster, and I'm pretty glad that we're on this floor.

View of the second floor from the fifth floor.

Faculty Centre (FC)

2006-01-19T19:27:00.000+08:00

Well, there's no order to this thing, but some might suspect that this is the "If Students Were Terrorist, These Are the Building They'll Bomb First" series. But er... NO.

You think the third floor of the FC is already its top floor but again... you're wrong. And let the Topnotcher, take it a notch higher. The center staircase (near the Department of Speech Communication and Theatre Arts), you'd find a hidden staircase illuminated with a dusty stench and 0% light. It's a stash room of theatre props. And if you want to be amused, let's play spot-the-difference (I took this picture four days earlier)

On the "fake" upperfloor, the 3rd Floor, is generally home to some of the departments of the College of Social Science and Philosophy as well as the College of Arts and Letters. There's the Department of Political Science (image), Sociology (image), Anthropology, Geography (image) and Philosophy. Of course, for CAL, it's just the Speech Comm & Theatre Arts Dept.

Aside from those departments, some noteable rooms include: the Gonzalo W. Gonzalez Reading Room (Rm 3122), the Silid Amado V. Hernandez (filled with computers - Rm 3124) , and... the place my teacher might end up in now that his first-floor corridor is dying out on him.

Well, I always look for more staircases to climb. I never thought it'll be my true calling, but Fire Escapes are becoming a favourite. This is what I see:

The *new* AS-FC walkway. And, it only took one year to complete! Hurrah! And yes, it was raining, and I came from AS, so I didn't get wet.

No jumping!!! Even if you can't work out your cinco or kwatro or INC.

Dept. of Math Extra Feature: Math Building Annex (MBAN)

2006-01-18T10:13:00.000+08:00

Rooftop Coming Soon!

Wala pa.

Classes are going on in the first floor thou', I was supposed to take Math 17 there. When I took Math 100 (Intro to Calculus) under Manjo Loquias, they were still building it. Well, expect a PhP16M (16,884,479.17 to be exact, or US$32o,814.73 according here) project to finish in n years. You do the math.

Department of Math: Math Building (MB)

2006-01-18T08:57:00.000+08:00

The Department of Mathematics... they don't even need an easy-to-access rooftop, most people believe that the subject matter is suicidal in itself (look at the traffic on prof inquiry). I think it's *not* allowed to access the rooftop, but since it was turn-of-periods when I got there, it was relatively easy to sneak. And look! There's manong busily dusting off the debris of mathematics.

Honestly, how can people even think that Maths is suicidal? Look at how zen the entire building is designed to be. Obviously like any equation, things should be balanced out. The Chaos Theory needs to be placed in an atmosphere of peace.

Chaos theory? Or dilapidated torture "chambers"?

I have a friend who actually starred in certain film graduate's thesis film that was set in this building. They *somehow* transformed it into a high school and in the first minute of the film, the female protagonist jumps off the rooftop. The jumping itself was implied in the images (I figured they won't have the equipment to make the girl actually jump), but it was one of the best packaging (framing?) of the Math Building I've ever seen.

There's the National Institute of Physics (ugly scaffold destroying the image). Chaos Theorists will be happy (or bothered?) that they can easily access each other's facilities.

After seeing this, I'm contemplating if I should go back to all the buildings I've visited and insist that I "place my mark" (as they suggested). On second thought... not! I don't believe in vandalism (albeit enjoying reading them), and I'm already making my mark here.

National Institute of Geological Sciences

2006-01-18T02:40:00.000+08:00

Q: Anong malamig na building sa UP?
A: sa PHAN
Q: Eh saan mas malamig?
A: sa Eh-con
Q: So saan ang pinakamalamig?
A: Sa NyyyyyyIGggS *with matching teeth-chattering*

Well, the National Institute of Geological Sciences really has a natural cave-like coolness to it, minus the stalagmites and stalactites protruding from its floors or ceilings.

The building is in a U shape and in the hall pictured above, the doors on the right (Rms 221-228) are faculty offices, with a lounge-y space after 224. The rooms across these doors is their Cities Service-Nido Audio-Visual Room (Rm 231-232) and there's the NIGS Seminar Room (Rm 230 - and renovated by their alumni).

Going to the parallel hall, you'll see more of these lecture halls. Most of them are specially labelled:

Rm
210 Vertebrate and Invertebrate Paleontology Room (Under Priscilla J. Militante-Matias)
211 Historical Geology Room
214 Geophysics Laboratory
215 Lecture Room
216 Undergraduate Microscopy Laboratory

And on the space the connects these parallel halls, you'll have no troubles finding more Instructors' Lairs (Rm 217 - a room that has one door but branches out into more offices), the Institute's Administrative Staff Office and the Office of the Director ... and! finally, Room 219 is the Library (yes, this was bound to come).

So, I left them to explore the earth, while I continued exploring my top floors.

National Institute of Physics: Research Wing

2006-01-17T00:00:00.000+08:00

The NIP Building should ideally be an entire complex, a group of beautiful buildings whose model has been collecting dust in Pav 3, and the longest construction probably known to mankind lying in the corner of C.P. Garcia and Katipunan Avenues. Almost a year ago (Jan. 25th), physics majors and physics-subject takers all over campus celebrated the opening of the new Research Wing. Note that it's only the Research Wing that is open, Lecture Halls, Administration, and the Faculty Wing is still waiting for the money tree to grow back in their "real" worlds.

The Research Wing is just BEAUTIFUL anyway. The staircase I first climbed stretched up to the fifth floor where the rooftop was. However, the main staircase was a beautiful colourful mural that ended only on the fourth floor. The building was illuminated with a beautifully architectured sunroof.

The rooftop itself was still super clean and super not locked (the building was unguarded as well - the guard had his lunch and apparently he's new so didn't know anything much about the building). The scary thing was:

My knees were shaking with the lack of protection. It was scorching hot and I ~~felt~~ was alone (at least I know no one will push me). I don't want to fall into a nicely structured, spanking clean parking lot.

It's so not going to be my type of free-falling exercise (Again Readers: Disclaimer).

From that physics problem, I can't help but resolve the blue-sky question. High-noon Photography + New Physics Building ? So Hot.

The Building from the top-side

This is my favourite rooftop so far. It was as if they defied quantum mechanics and you can morph yourself into different places. You can see the urban backdrop that the Katipunan area has, and if you look back, there's the farmland-esque feeling. I really like how picturesque the entire building was, but for the rest of the views from the rooftop, there's a separated album from the photo annex.

College of Mass Communication: Plaridel Hall

2006-01-16T22:35:00.000+08:00

From a building close to my heart, to another. Welcome to Plaridel Hall of The College of Mass Communication. Not really the highest building in the University, it is dissectible into two buildings connected by a skywalk. Its highest level is the second floor (albeit having a basement), so there was a lot to explore.

Since effective Mass Communication is direct and succinct, I'll keep it as short as possible. Starting from the Annex, the second floor lobby already has two couch sets. One was made out of bamboo, and the other one was made out of faux leather cushioning. The Annex is home to the Department of Communication Research (A-200) and the college's library (access to all university students, but only students of the college can check out books).

After being a skywalker, there's the Main building, the original structure in the complex. Obviously, the oldest department, Departmento ng Pamamahayag (Journalism) is here, and so is the Departmento ng Brodkast (Broadcast Communication). There are a few classrooms, and @ M-205 is the Office of Research and Publication and the Office of Extension and External Relations. It's also were the faculty toilets were allocated.

Students will most probably be seen on this wing since it can easily be accessed. The student organization tambayans are located on this wing, and so is the college's canteen.

If by any time you chance upon their Menu 4 Today, make sure to get one of their scrumdeliumcious eclairs (@ PhP 10 a piece, I once ate four in a span of one day).

School of Economics: MAIN!!!!

2006-01-16T09:24:00.000+08:00

The School of Economics main building was the first building I visited when I decided to do this project (or attempted to start it) last December. The only reason I know why I was barred was because of a lock. But who can stop the Topnotcher from getting to the top? The Admin and the Janitors (who happen to be the Keeper of the Keys). But what is this word... stop?

That's Ate Vangie right there. *sings* So I guess the question now is... why did they bar me without the letter?

When I chikka-d Tita Connie in SE-101, she did say that it was open before. And it was even a venue for events. It makes sense coz the floor area is wide. There are four divisions, with three overlooking courtyards (that land on the second floor - except for one, which is the first floor's atrium).

Well, when asked why it's not used for venues anymore, Ate Vangie reasoned out (and logically I tell you, if you organize these types of events), "mahirap magbuhat ng upuan". But of course. Not when the rooftop is on the FOURTH floor, and you have to climb this flight of stairs.

No, these aren't the chairs the students forgot to bring down. Those are -as usual- unused school furniture. They dumped construction material here as well and there's even a dusty ping-pong table.

If you remember from the Library Coverage, Tito Brando mentioned how rooftops are Suicide Hotspots.

Makes sense right? You'll get a nice concrete landing there, and if you hit the roof, no one will even notice you jumped off. (Readers: Disclaimer)

From ending life to er... starting it, Tita Connie had a different reason why the Rooftop was closed. According to her, it's become a lovers' hotspot. *snickers* As if they can really stop those things. Well, plenty of other fluids on this floor as well. There are as much WATER tanks as the number of staircases (4 tanks, 4 staircases - but only one staircase is openable to this rooftop).

Well, Economics is the study of allocation. Of scarce resources. And it's so cute how this tank overlooks Manila Water.

***

Thanks to this project, the Econ staff remembers me now, more than during the time I shifted into this school. I'd also like to thank my friend Kriselda for accompanying me and helping me in my recovering from my project tools panic.

Institute of Biology: Biology Pavilion (Pav 4)

2006-01-15T11:32:00.000+08:00

The Institute of Biology recently had a great loss. Dr. Wilfredo Barraquio passed away last January 2, when he had a stroke as he was rushing to his 7:00 AM class on that day that classes resumed. When I visited the last Pavilion of Palma Hall, the first thing that greeted me was a 11-day-old commemoration set (candles and flowers) on the spot where he got the attack. May his soul rest in peace.

Like Pav 2 and 3, Pav 4's top floor was its second level. The hall was narrower than its Chemistry and Physics counterparts because of the supply cabinets that pave the corridor. Vials, measuring devices, chemicals, preserved life forms. The Institute is in partnership with Idea Wild, because there was a poster of the organization plastered on one of the supplies cabinet.

Aside from the excessively stuffy corridor, the rooms are just like the rest of the pavs: teachers' lairs, stockrooms, labs, lecture rooms.

Keeping in mind that the odd and even rooms are across each other (again), noteable rooms are: Rm 4200 is the Preparation Room. The picture above is a huge classroom, from Rm 4201 - 4205 (three doors). Rm 4202 was one of the faculty rooms, but I was amused because it was F.C. Evangelista's and a M.R.S. Sumugat. They're not in the faculty listing, so I'm not sure if they were ancient faculty members who were so special they had nameplates on the door. Rm 4212 is a Store Room, with Clearances being issued ("Clearance issued here"). Rm 4214 - 4216 is a Tissue Culture Room (I'm so tempted to make a Kleenex joke - ay, I said it na). Rm 4215 is the General Equipment Laboratory, and next to it, Rm 4217 is the room for Cytology and Microtechnique. Rm 4220 is the Chemical Biology Research Lab, and 4222 is the Toxicology Lab. The room has a Ladies' Room, which I didn't check out. But one end of the hall had an interesting ancient feature.

I'm sure they keep that so that they'll have unlimited supply of microbes to study (from the students' stomachs of course, after they drink from it). Dr. Barraquio was a Microbio prof.

***

Credits: My Basic Life Saving Classmate/Bio Major Dianne, who remembered me and gave me the name of the professor who died (only I heard it as "Marciao"). Nicolo for first posting about his death, and Jowee for correcting my hearing ailment.

National Institute of Physics: The Llamas Science Hall a.k.a. the Physics Pav

2006-01-15T06:33:00.000+08:00

It's easy to get lost in a building that isn't sure of its numbering. And this is coming from a University unit that should be mathematics-centric. But I'm here to mitigate the unforeseen circumstances that a freshman can encounter. And this is to clarify, what's really on top of the now "old" Physics building, Pav 3.

I've already explained the classroom numbering system in the pavilions, however, the Physics Pav has some "special" provisions. First of all their upmost floor is the 2nd Floor, but apparently, it's the 2.25th Floor, which I will discuss later. It's established that it's Pav 3, so the 4-digit room codes must start with 3 right? Apparently, not all. The Physics Pav is shaped this way:

Okay, I'm an Econs major, not a wannabe Architect. Let's focus on the hall shaded green. The classrooms on this side has the starting number 4 (From L-R: Rm 4234 - 4228), but you cannot access it through Pav 4, or the Bio Pav. The staircase near the hall is the only access point, which is of course, only available via the main entrance of the Llamas Science Hall. As seen on the first photo, even the classroom number was painted wrong for Rm 4228.

A current gallery on the misleading hall.

If you go to the blue hall on my floor-plan from the staircase, it's paved with faculty rooms and lecture rooms. There are blackboards like this one that serve as exam notice-boards. The rooms on this hall start at 3200 - 3220. Rm 3200 is the Theoretical Physics Group, 3201-3215 are classrooms. Rm 3204, with the door opened at 3206 is the Office of the Director of the National Institute of Physics. All the other even-numbered rooms are Faculty Lairs (although Rm 3210 is a Conference Room).

As mentioned, the "real" up-most floor is the red hall, elevated by four steps from the second floor. It overlooks AS Walk, and aside from the Supply and Property Office (Rms 3224 - 3226), Rms 3228-3236 (even only) are also, Faculty Lairs.

The Pavs make you feel that you're studying Science in the 18th Century (that^unused bulletin board shows that, during the time the National Institute was just a Department). Very ancient. A lot of Science majors complain about it, so the NIP currently has its new headquarters near Katipunan.

Chem Pav Extra Feature

2006-01-14T21:23:00.000+08:00

When I was covering the Chem Pavs, I peered through one window and saw a suspicious looking metal staircase. The type that *ideally* seems like a fire-escape staircase, only it's too narrow, too steep and the landing is too foresty to actually be a functional escape. Oh, and the staircase wasn't actually connected to the building itself, just the top.

Yes, even the cobwebs and the steepness weren't enough to stop the topnotcher get to her goal. And remarkably, the gate was locked. x_X

There's a door there, and due to recent studies, it's most probably (a) a stockroom, (b) a library, or (c) a (nuclear) hideout. It is the Chem pav's "rooftop" after all.

Above me was only the sky while I was secretly hoping that this isn't going to be the venue of my death. I most definitely didn't want to fall over crawling vines and cobwebs, much more die in them. Nothing could be more unglamorous, but I told my friend where exactly I was going to be, just in case.

Institute of Chemistry: Palma Hall Pavilion 1 & 2 a.k.a. Chem Pavs

2006-01-14T19:08:00.000+08:00

Palma Hall is often referred to as "AS" albeit appearing "PH" on registration forms. "AS" is of course an abbreviation for "Arts and Science." So we now venture into the Science parts, the extension of the celebrated AS building, a.k.a. the Pavilions.

The Chemistry Pavilions take two parts. Pav 1 & 2. Pav 2 is the only Pavilion (out of four) that can be accessed via the AS Walk. Its highest floor is the second floor. And the confusing part is, the classrooms have four digits to it. The first digit indicates the pavilion number followed by the floor number and then the last two digits indicate the room number.

So the upmost floor of Pav 2 is the second floor. The rooms range from 2200 - 2222, odd-numbered rooms across the even-numbered ones. Most of these rooms are lecture/lab rooms. Special mention goes to the following labelled rooms: the Class '54 Lecture Hall (Rm 2205), the General Chemistry Laboratory (Rm 2206-2210), Organic Chemistry Laboratory (Rm 2209), BioChemistry Laboratory (Rm 2215-2217). Rm 2216 appears to be a Lab Instructor's Lair, there's a Ladies' Room and the window next to it warns us na Bawal Manigarilyo. If it weren't for the pro-choice stance most people take, I was secretly hoping they'd post it everywhere in the nicotine-infested wasteland of my outside world. The Bawal Manigarilyow window was facing the backstreet, while the other window faced the AS Walk.

The thing with this floor was it was one of those fake-upperfloors. The floor has a connector to Pav 1, which leads to another staircase, with a third floor. But! That's not the "real" top floor. There was a relatively skinnier staircase connected to the main one that lead to a janitor's attict, a.k.a. favourite hang-out spot of dilapidated school furniture.

Well, the attict was really messy that I couldn't even prop the door open. So that shot there^was really, chamba because I was holding out my camera from the 3/4 closed door. I decided to go to the "common top floor" after realising how relatively, my room is so "clean".

The entire floor was also for lecture/lab rooms. From room 1305 - 1326 were the "active" rooms, and once again, the even and odd rooms across each other. The end of this hall has a window that overlooks the AS-FC eskinita.

Before I left the building, I used the Ladies' Loo on that floor. I know I didn't make a mistake because well, there's the proof on the link. Not only did they have the smallest mirror in a Ladies' Room, but the most interesting feature was definitely this:

Only in da Kem Pav - hehe... Pav 4 kasi yung Bio Pav, at kahit yung Biochemistry Lab, nasa Pav 2.

CSSP (Department of Psychology): Palma Hall Annex

2006-01-12T22:31:00.000+08:00

Well, the plea for temporary insanity is becoming a popular legal defence (even for me). No wonder there are so many Psychology majors in my University. No wonder they have to have their own annex. The Palma Hall Annex (PHAN) was established during the tenure of (Former Dean) Dr. Elizabeth Ventura as the chairperson of the department in 1985.

Nice pattern for mind cognition (I'm inventing my psych jargon here). Probably a projection of a mental projection of the view from the garden. Baudrilliard would be so proud.

All the pictures were taken from the 3rd Floor of the PHAN. What's in it? Starting from that tree-projection end, to its left is a conference room labelled as Room 018 (odd numbering for the third floor) HPD. Next to it is the Female Restroom (still under construction). Across the conference room is Rm 304, Silid Kalaw-Ledesma (where my informant friend recently took one of her exams in). Rm 301, 302 & 303 are classrooms (incidentally, venues for Focus Group Discussions as well, and I clearly remember the first one I ever attended in the university was about LiveJournal culture).

Big surprises on how Rm 305 turns out to be Aklatang Virgilio G. Enriquez, a student-created library. Rm 307 is the Perceptual Experimental Lab and connected to this is Rm 309, a classroom labelled Audio-Visual Perception Lab (see photo above). Wicked plastic red chairs.

Between Rm 307 and 309 is a Subject Pool Announcement Bulletin Board. This is where students taking higher psych subjects who need subjects for experiments post notices for people who need to fulfill experiment-subjecting quota (imposed by the popular subject offered by the department, Psych 101). Finally, on the left-most side of the building (in reference to the staircase), you have Room 313-315, a combined room labelled as the Social Cognition Lab. This is where enlistment of Department of Psychology subjects are done. Near it, near the darker staircase, is a stack of sad, unused chairs.

For Bathroom Concerns, the *nicest* loos in the area is on this floor. Thank you psych~~(o)~~ students.

Love Lots,
the Topnotcher (I shall take a subject here... soon!)

College of Social Science and Philosophy: Palma Hall

2006-01-12T00:00:00.000+08:00

It is impossible for a UP Diliman undergraduate student to never set foot in this building. But I am 100% certain that the probability of everyone setting foot on the Fourth Floor of the bustling Palma Hall is reduced to 25%. After all, there are only 20(!) subjects/departments that use this floor (well, at least this semester, AY 2005-2006):

Anthropology
Araling Pilipino
Comparative Literature
English
Filipino
Hapon
Humanidades
Intsik
Kasayasayan
Kasanayan sa Komunikasyon
Koreyano
Lingguistics
Malikhaing Pagsusulat
Panitikan ng Pilipinas
Philosophy
Philippine Institutions
Political Science
Sociology
Social Science
Speculative Thought

To study in UP-D and to be a stalker. All you need is CRS and People Search. How else will I know that when I saw two of my CW 198 classmates, that their class was CL 122 under Dr. Carlos Aureus (which happened to be in the "last room" in the building)?

According to the CSSP student who accompanied me, the fourth floor wasn't only filled with the 20 un-airconditioned classrooms (ranging from Room 402 - 440, even numbers only, although Rooms 424-428 appear like a huge divisible classroom). Aside from these classrooms located on the left from the center staircase, if you turn right, you see the CSSP Multimedia Room. It's a facility for lease, that provides venue, sound system and LCD projector at varying discriminatory rates.

While the Multimedia Room is to the left of this^hall, to the right are classrooms, 400 A, B & C (the Multimedia Room was D). They had alien looking, pretty blue chairs in the set.

College of Education: Benitez Hall

2006-01-11T22:19:00.000+08:00

Ah. The school that trained (most of) my high school mentors and the country's top educators. Some of them well, go here as a portal to the bigger world. It all starts here. The building of the College of Education is referred to as Benitez Hall, after Dean Francisco Benitez.

The building has two staircases, one closes at 6:45PM (the one on the right when you enter the building, which will be referred to in this entry as the East side). The West side seems more accessed, because it's the side that leads to the Library. The East wing and West wing is connected by the library, and is in reality, just one big floor, but the door of the library from the East wing is closed (the obvious reasons? Security, lack of personnel).

As mentioned, the Library is accessed from the West Wing. The top floor of this wing also has Room 304, Male & Female Restrooms, Room 312, and the department where you can ask for advice:

Yes, I would refer you to the Department of Reading on the Second Floor, but if you can read better On-line, it says "Department of Special Education". But then again, aren't we all special?

If you go down the second level and go back up to the East Side, this is what will greet you and a Female Restroom. At the end of the hall is a dilapidated door labelled as the "Asian Training Center". Room 315-C and the rest of the corridor seems to be called the Health Education Area.

The other end of the wing was Room 311, which to my *surprise* is another store room.

Psychotically, went inside the room. There was your typical broken glasses and abandoned furniture. So if you need a torture chamber, you know where to go (it's wide open).

Hopefully, it's not children they abuse. From one window on this floor, it perfectly overlooks the experimental/training grounds of this soon-to-be-teachers, the UP Integrated School.

College of Law: Bocobo Hall (Law Center)

2006-01-10T20:57:00.000+08:00

Completing the ~~complex~~ Law Complex, is Bocobo Hall, a.k.a. the Law Center. You can find a notary public there to notarize whatever legal documents (at least that's what I went there for before this project). My impression is it seems more like a bunch of offices instead of a part of the instructional aspects of the University.

Nonetheless, it was one of those buildings with a working elevator (UP Diliman??? Working Elevator????). Sue me for using it instead of the stairs, but it was pretty fascinating finding a working lift in the University. Levels 1, 2, 3, P. At first, my friend Grego (who wants to go to Law School now), thought P was a misprint for R = rooftop. Hehe. Apparently it's for penthouse. Interestingly, it was a deserted penthouse.

If Alexander Santiago was failing Constitutional Law here instead of there, he would probably skip the gun and go here (that's as good as two shots). It's such an easy-access suicide portal. Good thing the stars were there to guide us.

The floor has very low ceiling, as low as 2m. Anyway, the Penthouse of this building contained a Penthouse Lecture Hall.

The seating capacity is HUGE. It doesn't seem recently abandoned or anything, but it doesn't seem very used nor new. Next to the Penthouse Lecture Hall, is the Extension Room.

This room had three subdivisions. It looks almost classroomy, only on each division, it contains a different generation of chairs (from the metal with foam padding 70s type of chair to the sleeker black plastic types). I had tons of picture inside the Extension Room and the PLH, but somehow, they all turned out Sadako-blurry.

There was one room that didn't seem like your average classroom. It looked more like a small conference hall, with a dining-esque table with a pistachio green table cloth and surrounded by monobloc chairs. At one end of the room was this:

Why does it feel like it's fresh from a mafia meeting?

That's it for your daily dose of top building, Law Complex special. Hopefully, I'm still in the running to be legally blonde este... brunette.

Love Lots,
The Topnotcher

College of Law: Malcom/Espiritu Hall

2006-01-10T20:16:00.000+08:00

Libraries are becoming a favourite for our top floors. The College of Law's main building, is legally one of the most beautiful buildings on campus. It has the same feel as most of the buildings in the block (there's an "ancestral home" vibe to the older buildings in campus - red clay tiles, marble, tall ceilings and pillars). The building itself has a U-shape that rises to three levels. Right in the middle of it, which seems like an extension put in the huge courtyard of the College of Law, is an auditorium on the first floor, and starting the second floor, all the way until the fifth floor, is the Law Library. According to a memorial tablet upon the entrance of the library, that particular structure was established in 1983, refer here for the full history of the establishment of the library.

Entering the library building will be most easy if you're a University student/faculty. Just present your ID to the guard, and fill out a purpose. I didn't put there "to check out the upper floors" instead I wrote "plea for insanity." I was accompanied by my friend Angelica, and for pity for her almost lost dreams of being a veterinarian, I wrote her purpose to be "animal rights." V. just.

The stairs stopped at the fourth floor of the library building (fifth level on the main one). It was under construction.

I would have loved to access it. But I don't do plywood doors. Locked doors, I can try, but not when I hear a lot of chainsaw-ing and hammering. So maybe we should stick to the pseudotopfloor.

This floor is the Reserved Section of the Law Library. There is a wide sitting area. There's also a nifty room that was labelled CD-ROM Service. Nifty, but not at all super techy (what is this word, CD-ROM?)

But don't worry, the construction is meant to jazz up the Law Library. Aside from an extended reading area, the College of Law is planning to have an Internet café. So for aspiring attorneys who happen to give justice to the words "On-line addict" this is for you. The fact that it's a café assumes the nature of it being a business, but alas, this is law in the third world.

Vinzons Hall

2006-01-09T22:55:00.000+08:00

Located right next to the popular student organization tambayan Vinzons Hill, Vinzons Hall is home for different Offices in the university aimed to assist various student concerns and endeavours (the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs, University Student Council, STFAP, etc.) The Rooftop, is really the 4th floor.

I already have a silly experience with the Vinzons Rooftop. Earlier in this academic year, I thought that V-Rooftop listed as the venue of my PE Class was in this building. I literally went there. Just to find out that there was another building in the University that started with "V". Favulous.

On the leftmost side of the staircase are two, padlocked doors. Room 402 and the Activity Center. These rooms are being leased as venues for events of different student organizations. I took a peek through where the original doorknob should have been on Room 402, rather, my camera lens was sleuth-y enough.

Personally, I've been to a Vinzons Rooftop event. For location and facilities (and rating pegged to UP Diliman Facility Standards), I give it 1.5 stars out of 5. Barely passing. Pfft. As mentioned, the other room is also for venue.

The last room, separated by the divider that cuts where the staircase ends, is Room 401. This is otherwise known as the Philippine Collegiate Office, the official student publication of the University.

I still have a friend from Collegian, I just forgot to ask her to bring me around. Maybe I'll put self-referencing entry if I get anything more interesting about this.

TTFT (Ta ta for Today)!
the Topnotcher

College of Business Administration (CBA)

2006-01-09T21:00:00.000+08:00

Welcome to the College of Business Administration's Rooftop.
The first actual rooftop in the series, the CBA's sole building ends on its 6th floor. The building itself is closed to students, faculty, and staff of the university, and an ID is solicited upon entrance.

Kudos to my friend Louie who came with me as we climbed the flights of stairs. What did we see from up here? The machine-gun-esque statue that allegedly is ~~"The Supply and Demand"~~ "The Spirit of Business" (thanks Tet for the correction! haha) representation, aerial view.

I just realised how perfectly manicured the CBA front garden is. Nonetheless, aside from the rusting metal tubing that "guards" people from the concrete edge of the building, there were four mini towers on the rooftop. Two of them are the ones that lead to the staircase. The other two looked like this:

Inside were used, classroom furniture piled up in one corner. Note on the right hand side of the picture. This was the side where a student (college and major unknown) killed him/herself. According to Kuya Berdy, it happened one morning in the mid-90s. That's the reason why most, if not all, rooftops in the University are locked, and I just got particularly lucky that there was on-going construction on the 5th floor that required the rooftop to be open.

Whoever it is who chose BA as his or her final resting place, I hope that person marvelled at the beauty of the view from up here (although if you're suicidal, marvelling beauty is probably the least of your priorities).

*view from the south-side of the building, featuring the Manila Waters company's main site.

School of Economics: Library Building

2006-01-09T07:18:00.000+08:00

First entry would of course start with "home." Home to more than the students of the School of Economics, the Library Building houses not only the UPSE's Library but also the Diosdado Macapagal Hall. Why is the library building a literal "hot spot" even for non-Econ majors? It is one of the more popular and more stable locations to get Wireless Internet via the Diliman Servers.

Entering the library part of the building will require special access already. You need to be a University student/faculty/staff/alumni. As I deposited my ID, I asked Tita Belen if the next floor was the top-most floor already. She said yes, the third floor was the highest floor in the building. I deposited my ID and made my way up until I reached the end of the staircase.
So there it is, the 3rd Floor of the Library Building was the Filipiniana/Serials section of the library. The entire space isn't fully air-conditioned, but there's a 150-seating capacity on this floor.
Other features included carrels for graduate students, offices (Rooms 35 - 38), comfort rooms, this weird sink area, and the French Documentation Centre (of the College of Arts and Letters - I know, I found it surprising as well).

As I further explored, I saw the now abandoned photocopying area where I got my first Econ 11 exercise sets copied. And then...
I felt betrayed! It says Exit, but no one can really exit. I checked it out for myself:
A hidden staircase! Tita Belen betrayed me. I approached Tito Brando who told me that access is only granted to janitors. The rooftop used to be covered in asphalt but when there was extra funding for the school last academic year, they put a roof to the rooftop. He then told me that they're tight on security there because a student from BA committed sucide from the rooftop once.

I went out of the building in frustration. Next time, I'll really try to access one of the school's rooftops. So here's a view of the top from the ground floor:

I'll probably get a chance again. See you around campus!

Love Lots,
the Freakonomista
(1/14: mwehehe... I'm going to rename myself as "the Topnotcher" thou')

Project Rules

2006-01-07T09:26:00.000+08:00

Kamusta naman ang mundo natin?

This isn't as easy as I thought it would be. So if you are about to read this blog, here are the rules that I am about to follow.

Go to a UP-Diliman building armed with digital camera and school ID.
Find the staircase. Go up until the staircase runs out.
Ask staff members of the building if it is the highest floor in the building.
If ever there's a rooftop, attempt to access it by all means. Ask on WHY it's not easy to access. There's always a story there.
Take pictures of the features of the upperfloors and pictures of what is seen from the upperfloors.

Blog entry rules:

ONE entry per building (note: building, not per school/college)
Minimum of one photograph and maximum of five (including the "view from the top" picture)
Entry must be less than 500 words, and only display a maximum of 250 words. (Readers, click on "What's on top of all this?" for the complete entry on a rooftop/top floor).

Welcome to On Top of UP Diliman!

2006-01-05T10:39:00.000+08:00

Well, I'm far from being on top of the school in terms of my "academic strength". But I definitely go over the top of every building in campus. So here's the challenge: check out the top of the different schools, buildings around the university, and assess it, backpacking style.

I don't have a definitive MAP on how to do this, but just keep checking. If you're from the University of the Philippines - Diliman, I'm sure you'll keep tabs on when I'll feature you're college. Maybe you'll even get a cameo appearance.

Love Lots,
the Topnotcher